Jo Malone Blue Agava and Cacao...mmmmm

I would just like to give this largely ignored scent some attention on the boards because I think everyone here ought to have the pleasure of smelling it. If you have a Saks or a Niemans nearby, go there asap. I hope some of you decide to seek it out and smell it.

As you might know, I don't like many sweet scents. Unfortunately for me, most scents with a decent chocolate note are quite decadent and thick. This gives me a headache and, for some reason, makes my throat ache. Blue Agava and Cacao is the first chocolate scent that has really captured my attention. It's warm and faintly sweet but manages to stay light and airy throughout its evolution. The chocolate here is more like unsweetened cocoa powder than a Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate brownie with caramel topping. Rather than making me feel like I'm inhaling a wet cloud of sweetness, Blue Agava and Cacao makes a gentle, welcoming aura, like a fresh baked chocolate cake cooling in another room. This excellent chocolate note is present from beginning to end.

But other notes come and go too. None of them are something you'd expect from a chocolate fragrance and all of them keep you absolutely mystified. Most importantly, the agave (cactus), an exotic, sweetish green note is present mainly in the heart and early base. Having smelled (and eaten) agave often when I was younger, smelling this note is bewitching, as subtle as it may be. It gives the whole fragrance a twist, and I really respect this perfumer using such bold notes and managing to achieve such an integrated and attractive effect. If this was just chocolate, it would be a terrible bore. Some cinnamon and perhaps tonka becomes apparent in the base, but this is not so much a note as a smoothing agent. At this point, the fragrance is like a wispy cloud of subtle, soft, seductive chocolate velvet.

Longevity is decent (6 hours or so). It's undeniably attractive and I have no doubt that it would be an almost universal hit. But it's soft enough with a light application to wear with confidence in most situations. Sorry for getting all poetic, but I really like it. I'm getting a bottle.